The Bradys and the Girl Smuggler; Or, Working for the Custom House

Excerpt: 'The Collector of the Port of New York sat in his office in the Custom House with a look of annoyance upon his face. Several of his chief inspectors were standing about the room with the most uneasy expressions, for they were being censured unmercifully. 'I tell you, gentlemen,' the Collector was saying, angrily, 'I am very much disgusted with the poor service your department is giving. I am determined to stop this wholesale smuggling. If none of you are capable of doing the work for which you are liberally paid, I'll have to get somebody to do the work for you. Do you understand?' 'But, sir,' began one of the inspectors, humbly, 'we've done our best—' 'And accomplished nothing!' snapped the Collector. 'How could we, sir? The smuggler you want us to catch does not resort to the usual tricks such people adopt to avoid paying duty on the diamonds and other precious stones, which you say are smuggled into this country. It's because he's such a sly and clever rogue, that we can't locate him. We've resorted to every known method to discover the villain, but can't make any headway.' 'Then you admit you are beaten?' 'Yes,' was the hesitating reply. 'Hum!' grunted the Collector, in tones of contempt. 'A nice lot of government detectives you fellows are to admit such a defeat. However, I've taken the matter into my own hands now.'